Spotted at Pharyngula
Published by Allison January 30th, 2006 in Spirituality & Religion, Psychology, Personality, & Mental HealthI read the original post PZ mentions a few days ago, and found myself retching at the link. I really wish that the super-religious would leave religious instruction in the church, where it belongs. Provide it in parochial schools, fine…but ftlog, don’t teach religion to my child in a public school. That’s my job as a parent.
Angry Professor’s original post focused more on the idea many religious sorts hold that the only means to becoming a good person is by being a Christian. Feh. Whatever. How sad would that be, if the only way that people could make good choices were by way of fearing eternity in hell? Anyone with a passing knowledge of Skinner’s research could tell you that punishment and negative reinforcement are actually the *weakest* teaching tools out there. How about we do something novel, and do the right thing simply because it’s right?
Anyway…here’s what grabbed me from PZ’s site:
And guess what? You can be a practicing Christian or Muslim or whatever, and still adopt the secular-rational worldview. Our problem, I think, is with those religious people with the strange idea that praising Jesus requires a rejection of rationality and secularism.
Amen. Read the rest here.
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Alli, I understand your point that you can have a moral compass without being Christian. But there are some caveats to that: If by Christian you mean the ‘radiofied’ version of legalistic morality that seeks to condemn the rest of the world that doesn’t believe the same as they do; if by Christian you mean people who base their morals on nitpicking the death out of the Scriptures; if by Christian, you refer to those who march in front of other churches with signs like “God hates Fags”.
But I challenge anyone to have a system of morals that is philosophically consistent that does not have a theistic (a belief in God) underpinning. How can one believe in an absolute moral consensus if their belief is that there are no absolutes? I agree with you that the absolutes do not have to line up with Pat Robertson and his posse, but they at least have to have something that they are pinned to. Otherwise, everyone makes up their own moral agenda.
And that’s how we get Darfur and the days in New Orleans following Katrina…lawlessness.
First, I think you misunderstand my point. Nowhere, did I say that Christians (radio/cliche or otherwise) are lacking a moral compass — merely that Christianity isn’t a requirement to do the right thing.
Your second point — that without a theistic belief, one cannont have a philosophically consistent system of morals — is one that I don’t have the knowledge to definitively argue either way. That said, my sense is that there are people out there who have no belief in a deity whatsoever who still strive to do the right thing. They’re likely uncommon. I mean, really, it takes a great deal of emotional health to genuinely do right without the fear of retribution as a driver. But just because it’s uncommon doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
For me, I find that my choices to do right or not mean much more to me now than they ever did during my (legalistic) youth, because they’re genuinely *my* choices — not actions I take out of fear. Perhaps my belief in God drives that, but I went through a period of rebelling before I realized that I could do right simply because it’s right — and not have it be someone else’s choices for me. I’m rambling…hope that makes sense.